SAINT-QUENTIN-ENYVELINES, France — Bozeman cycling BMX racer Cameron Wood finished his 2024 Olympic journey Friday at the BMX Stadium.
In front of a raucous crowd thrilled to see three French riders in the final in an event France had never won a medal in before, Wood found himself on the start line sandwiched between the trio of Frenchmen on the start line in the third starting position.
The three French riders blasted out to a strong start to get a clean shot at the first turn where Wood went high and avoided Australian Izaac Kennedy who crashed. But after that, it was tough to catch the leaders and Wood finished fifth in 32.446 seconds.
Joris Daudet won the gold medal in 31.422, Sylvain Andre won silver in 31.706 and Romain Mahieu won bronze in 32.022 as the three French riders secured the medal sweep of the podium on their home track in front of an ecstatic crowd.
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The day began in the semifinal round of the men’s competition as the field was whittled down from 16 to the final eight.
As the first semifinal heat got underway, Wood started well out of gate five and sped down the start. However, the field bunched up as they went into the first banked turn and Wood was forced to go high on the corner which dropped him back in the field to sixth. On the final homestretch, Wood was able to make up ground and edge out his U.S. teammate Kamren Larsen at the line for fourth place in 32.640 seconds and earn four points. Larsen was fifth in 32.671 and France’s Joris Daudet won the heat in 31.752.
The semifinal round is comprised of three heats of eight competitors during which riders are awarded points according to their finish with first place earning a single point, second earning two and so on. The eight riders with the lowest points after three rounds advance to the finals.
In the second heat, there was a crash on the first turn which took out Larsen and the Netherland’s Jaymio Brink that Wood almost got caught up in, but Wood managed to stay moving forward on his bike. Wood finished fifth in 34.028 as France’s Romain Mahieu won the heat in 31.649.
So after two runs, Wood had nine points and was ranked ninth overall with ground to make up in order to make the final which would only include the top eight riders.
In the third run, Wood got his best start of the day by getting out to second position by the first corner and holding that position throughout to finish in 32.096 behind heat winner France’s Mahieu (31.767). Wood’s two points from the heat gave him an 11-point total over the three semifinal heats which earned him a spot in the final with the seventh overall ranking.
Making the Olympics, much less the final, looked questionable at multiple points over the past two years.
In 2023, Wood’s progression to the Olympics were in jeopardy after he broke his left shoulder and tore his labrum at a race in Turkey. Surgery was able to repair the injury, but held him out for months. Then in February 2024, Wood reinjured the same shoulder at a World Cup race in New Zealand. Again, he was forced to spend time away from the track recovering, but avoided surgery in the hope that he would be able to get back to form in time and be selected for the Olympic team.
Wood was born in Great Falls and spent much of his childhood in Bozeman before moving to Phoenix at 16 after his sophomore year to pursue the ability to train year round. The move helped him work his way up the ranks until he made his first Olympic team this year at age 22.
As a professional, Wood has amassed two World Cup wins, seven World Cup Podiums and a silver at the 2023 Pan American Games.
While Wood grew up competing as usually the only Montanan in races he traveled to as a child, he is one of three Montanans competing in Paris, albeit in different sports. Missoula swimmer Katharine Berkoff won bronze in the women’s 100 backstroke Tuesday and Manhattan’s Ivan Roe competed in three different rifle shooting events. Three alternates were also there with their teams including Tokyo Olympians Nicole Heavirland (Whitefish) with the bronze-medal winning U.S. women’s rugby team, and Ali Weisz (Belgrade) and Nick Mowrer (Butte) with USA shooting.
